Former military man famed for playing the unforgettable Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, leading to a fairly healthy second career acting in lesser-but-still-OK B-movies.
A truly awesome performance, all the more impressive when you consider he did most of it with a broken arm.
So many memorable quotes, I have borrowed from him several times, shouting down at a few seconds while climbing " Private Pyle, you climb my route like old people f**k"
Loads of the bollockings he handed out in FMJ were improv based on his experience as a real live USMC Staff Sergeant. He maintained that he had to explain to Kubrick what a 'reach around' was. Modine was excellent, but Ermey stole the film.
> A truly awesome performance, all the more impressive when you consider he did most of it with a broken arm.
Also impressive when you consider that he wasn't an actor but an advisor, and Kubrick decided to replace the actor and put Ermey in front of the camera! OK maybe FMJ was "easy" for him, but he seemed to ease into acting in aforementioned B-movies in sometimes-different sorts of roles e.g. the sympathetic sherriff in Switchback. And sometimes-typecast roles e.g. the Hartman-esque sheriff in the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
> his pro -America ,anti Brit shoot offs were good fun ,and for once he actually admitted that the Bren gun was a good bit of kit.
> Bren Gun 1 :BAR 0
Off on a slight tangent but I'm sure Gunney wouldn't mind. I remember talking to a friends Grandfather who was a member of Linge Kompanie, the Norwegian Commandos who trained at Glenmore lodge. He said the Bren was too good. When pressed he said it was so accurate and stable to fire that it put 15 bullets into 1 German, when putting 15 bullets into 15 Germans would have been preferable....
Interestingly (to me anyway) I went to see FMJ the night before I had to attend my own basic training. Although not quite in the same vein as the FMJ scenes there were certainly moments worthy of comparison.
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...